/ Rock vandalism at Robin Hood's & Cratcliffe

I imagine very few people have been in the Cratcliffe area recently, which presumably masked the activities of some maniac... Walking round today, I saw the following: Left Arete at Cratcliffe Top Boulders hacked all the way up its top two thirds, holds under Razor Roof bashed off, Scopp knocked about and at Robin Hood's, assorted chippings on problems which I can't immediately identify from the BMC guide. All in all a lot of irreparable damage, which is tragic.

In reply to Jaipur: i went up there on Saturday and saw the damage to razor roof. Thought it could have been the weather at first but on closer inspection you could see the holds had been attacked with a few impact marks close to the main breakages. razor roof looked in a bad way.

Such a shame. It didn't look like the work of kids throwing rocks.......

Looks to me like an attack on popular boulder problems by someone with a crazy grudge. Certainly on Joe's Slab they seem to have targeted obvious holds; I know these problems and it looks like that here as well and I'll be going for a closer look.

In reply to Jaipur: Maybe a walker of some sort doesn't like the big and obvious chalk marks. Who then decides to chip the holds to stop people leaving chalk 'graffiti' whilst climbing on the boulders. Who knows unless the person responsible explains?

> (In reply to jonny2vests)
>
> Looks to me like an attack on popular boulder problems by someone with a crazy grudge. Certainly on Joe's Slab they seem to have targeted obvious holds; I know these problems and it looks like that here as well and I'll be going for a closer look.

Yeah, something like that - a climber or someone with knowledge of climbing. Prob not a demented geologist. I have wild fantasies about catching someone during the act, armed with my light sabre. Grrrr.

> While the chipping is bad from a climbing point of view, the "real mess" from a non climbers point of view would probably be all the chalk smothered over razor roof.

Yes. At least in theory this could be brushed off. Unfortunately in practice it either isn't, or can't be. I did Razor Roof a few weeks ago and it was smothered then, and it also had huge tickmarks on it. I brushed the tickmarks off, but the rest of the chalk was pretty well bedded in and with the rock being quite soft I didn't make much effort to clean it up.

I wonder with the current popularity of bouldering whether we shouldn't all be making more effort to use less chalk, particularly on something steep where it won't wash off.

In reply to Wil Treasure:
I've never been to the area and haven't done much bouldering but have there been any access isssues with the landowner? That looks like it's been done deliberately to make them unclimbable (not like there is such a thing!).

This is a real shame. I remember a couple of years ago, I was walking through Robin Hood Stride with my pad and some old guy muttered as he passed "I thought you're meant to break your legs when you fall not fall on those mats" His tone of voice wan't friendly. Just highlights there are people who dislike climbing in the area.

In reply to Jaipur: That terrible ! problem 5 also looks in a bad way now and to me its undoubtably the work of a hammer or hammering from something similar and i suspect who ever did this was trying to make these climbs assessable for the lack of bouldering ability they have.

after grit has been damaged this way, is it best to Not boulder on these routes and allow weathering the time to work or just carry on regardless?..

In reply to Offwidth: i hear what your saying - but a few of the routes do look like they have been bashed to try and make a better foot or finger hold.. i go up to the top boulders quite a bit in ok weather and usually do problem 5 as my warm up.. the chip on the slab looks to be like its been done to aid a foot placement. I kind of figure that if someone wanted to attack the chalked up problems they would have smashed the hell out of the grit.. but maybe im wrong .. in any event - its mindless vandalism but something we cant do much about - except try to educate folks- use less chalk etc.. unless you happen to see someone in the act of course.

In reply to Wil Treasure: yeah maybe your right.. going to have a wander up and take a look for myself.. gutted to say the least.. why do people destroy stuff- makes you look at humanity in a different light....

In reply to Jaipur: no one has mentioned the top car park yet- disgruntled countyfolk seeing the 'no parking' signs disrgarded and getting medieval on our problems? does get pretty crowded up there these days, verges are pretty chewed up etc.(not as chewed up as they are when a tractor rolls over them mind...)

Big shame that if it is an objection to the visual impact, this is the action taken. I'd happily consider not using chalk or brushing it off after sessions in some areas that are very popular with general public if it kept everyone happy.

It could be kids playing with a lump hammer - I've seen graffitti "tagging" on small boulders and trees at ringinglow before (which I removed with a wire brush (not climbing boulders). In which case it's down to general education about countryside.

I would bet a kilo of chalk that this was not done by a climber...seems to me the chalk marks our antics and some prat wandering round the Tor simply wants to say " piss off"....if I ffind anybody knocking chunks out of, or chipping these or anyother frequented natural playgrounds ... I will ensure their hammer is inserted in a suitible crack. I am sure the two knobs who decided to take a chisel to Blackrocks some 25 years ago, remember been confronted by 6 staffordshire lads and a number 4 friend...I still have the chisel.